What does the Bible say about cohabitation?
The latest available figure of the number of unmarried Americans who are living together with a partner of the opposite sex is 9.7 million, a 54% increase since 1990. Although one of the key reasons people say they are living together is “to get to know each other better before marriage,” those who eventually marry have a 46% higher divorce rate than those who did not live together first! Cohabitation is two people living together as man and wife who are not married to one another. Although we might think this practice is a modern one, it may have its roots in the Old Testament custom of permitting men to have a concubine, literally, a second wife. The difference is that the husband typically lived with both women who together with their children were housed in separate quarters. For example, the handmaidens that Rachel and Leah gave to Jacob became his concubines as legal, secondary wives (Genesis 30:3-13). God instituted marriage (Genesis 1:27, 28) (Genesis 2:21-24) as heterosexual (
